THE WIDOW'S VILLAGE

Al alory Romance

He shaved his beard to save his sister.Najm is a 17-year-old boy with Arab eyes and a Muslim heart, born between two worlds — Igbo mother, Ilorin father. When his sister Adaeze is poisoned with a chicken, declared a witch, and thrown into Umu Ada — the Evil Forest where widows are left to die — the village says she is dead.Najm knows she lives.But no man can enter the widow's village. The law says: any man who enters will be killed by the spirits.So he becomes a woman.Wrapped in a blue star wrapper, chest padded with cloth, voice softened to a whisper, Najm enters the forest as *Zainab — the tall, fine widow who snores like a man.*Inside, he finds not witches, but mothers. 23 widows who pound fufu, fetch water, and laugh too loud. And one girl —Layla Moon. 15, with a crescent scar on her cheek, the girl who was thrown away as a child for being different. She holds a razor and a bowl of shea butter. She is the only one who can shave Zainab without cutting his throat.Every morning she shaves him. Every night she teaches him widow dance. And under Mother Tree, he teaches her to read — Alif, Ba, Ta, and A, B, C — in the sand that wind will erase.But Obinna, the Chairman's son, is watching. The square day is a trap. One cloth breast falls during the widow dance. One cry too real. One razor too close.If they are caught, they die.If they are not caught, Najm must leave the forest — and leave Layla.

Unfold